In a sleek new building at the University of Surrey, a combination of 27 big companies, UK government agencies and educational institutions boast they are developing the largest open innovation centre for 5G development in the world.

The extent of the collaboration is unusual in an industry racing to find commercial advantage from the development and applications of a new super fast, super connected mobile network and governments increasingly anxious about cyber security.

It's also an example of the very different approach taken by the UK and by the US to the involvement of Chinese tech companies, especially in the telecommunications industry.

In the UK, the preference is for more of a joint effort, including funding, that incorporates academic research, industry, potential customers and all levels of government.

So the Chinese telco equipment giant, Huawei, is one of the corporate partners helping to fund the university's innovation centre and its £90m (A$159m) program, along with companies like BT, Vodafone and Spain's Telefonica.

In contrast, BT allowed Huawei to be build its equivalent access network but after security concerns were raised, Huawei pays for an independent cyber security centre which allows GCHQ to assess its equipment and software.

He suggested looking more closely at what the UK had done even though he conceded there were different views in the UK intelligence community about how this approach had worked.

But BT also restricts some parts of the network in which it is willing to use Huawei. Howard Watson, head of BT Technology, Service and Operations, told The Australian Financial Review BT had worked closely with Huawei for many years but still does not use Huawei equipment for high end network routers.

"We think that is the most vulnerable part of the network and so therefore we, at this point, haven't deployed them there," he said. "But outside of that from a critical national infrastructure point of view, we have been happy with the areas where we have deployed Huawei."

That suggests the possibility of restricting Huawei software and equipment in the core 5G network while permitting it in other less sensitive areas. This is what happens already with Huawei in Australia's 4G network.

Following US warnings, the government ordered a full national security assessment of Huawei's involvement from the critical infrastructure centre in the Department of Home Affairs.

This is even though Huawei is already conducting 5G trials for the major telecommunications companies in Australia and is on the government's 5G working group.

Dennis Richardson said it would be a shame if Australia did not seek to take advantage of Huawei's technology
Louie Douvis

"We welcome discussions and even debate if it is based on facts," he told the Financial Review during the Mobile World Congress last week. "If it is based on groundless suspicions, it is not a constructive way to resolve the issue."

The entire industry now revolves around global supply chains meaning leading ICT companies, including Apple, use components made in China no matter where they are headquartered.

Huawei has grown spectacularly to become the world's biggest supplier of telco equipment and the third largest mobile phone supplier with revenues of $US92 billion in 2017.

Huawei now has memorandums of understandings on 5G with 45 different telcos and is conducting pre-commercial 5G trials in major cities including Seoul, Tokyo, London, Milan and Vancouver.
Reuters

Huawei now has memorandums of understandings on 5G with 45 different telcos and is conducting pre-commercial 5G trials in major cities including Seoul, Tokyo, London, Milan and Vancouver. The company argues it would never want to compromise its commercial success or reputation by not protecting the security of its customers.

But US and Australian security agencies are worried about the network's potential or coerced use by Chinese authorities in future.

Others argue these concerns are more due to US alarm at losing America's traditional technological dominance in a range of areas.

China is determined to lead the world in 5G – as well as in artificial intelligence – and encourages "champion" companies in key sectors.

Under standards being developed, 5G offers download speeds of at least 20 gigabits per second with round-trip response times (known as latency) of less than five milliseconds.

That will accelerate the development of virtual and augmented reality, automated cars, massive new video streaming capacity and a network "sliced" into different parts for specific purposes.

In part because of the higher frequency spectrum it uses as well as the multiplicity of devices and data points it will connect, 5G also requires a lot more antennas, base stations, computing power and fibre.

It makes for an ever more connected but complicated world – in politics as in technology.

Jennifer Hewett visited the Mobile World Congress and the University of Surrey as a guest of Huawei.